Ship to Shore – Caroline Stapley

TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF

Caroline StapleyBritish, mid-50’s (apparently – how did that happen?!), have lived in Mallorca since 1989.  I had done a French/Spanish and Economics degree at Newcastle Polytechnic as it was then, and arrived in Mallorca to do my TEFL having survived a year of teaching in Cataluña as my first real job after Poly.  A guy on my course was a yachtie who invited me to go sailing with his friends during the Conde de Barcelona regatta after the course had finished, and that was it!  I was smitten!  All the people I met were out-going, work-hard, play-hard types, travelling the world, and getting paid a lot more than I was, teaching English to reticent schoolkids.

I announced my intention to my parents that I was off to the Caribbean for the winter – not very approving! – but the Guardia Civil had better ideas, and I had to drive my impounded Beetle back to the UK after overstaying.  By the time I got back, all the boats had left for the Caribbean and I spent a lean but fun winter, scratching around for daywork, and bar work in a grotty US Navy bar.  A couple of yachting legends gave me a leg-up ( Fat Patrick – accommodation, in return for daywork but I was clueless); and Martyn Walker, later a Superyacht Captain, who taught me a valuable lesson that to this day he does not remember!  He bought a sandwich to share with me during an Arena Sunday session!  I was starving, but I never forgot to pay it forward, and try to help any greenies I met who I thought “had it”!

Yachting was only meant to be something I did for a couple of years to pay off my student overdraft, but of course, as many in the industry, I was seduced by the endless summers of the Med/Caribbean milk run, and it soon became what I “did”.  I was on sailboats for 6 years, Classics for 2 1/2 of those and I loved having such pride in such beautiful yachts.

Caroline Stapley

HOW LONG DID YOU WORK IN YACHTING?// CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR YACHTING CAREER?

So after the long pauper winter, I was first in the queue for the first jobs when March 1990 came around.  My first boat was S/Y Shenandoah of Sark!  What a way to start! St. Tropez WAS St. Tropez when Shenandoah was in port!  Such a fun crew headed by Stevie Wilkins – will never forget his party trick of swallowing whole Creme Caramels off a saucer!  S/Y Aile Blanche – 2 years with dearly departed Alex Greenson as Mate, even a brief spell on Adix in the Pacific which, of course, was a massive highlight.  I resisted motoryachts for a long time, as I never wanted to become one of the super bitch Chief Stews!!  In the end, once I was on a 48m Perini as Stew, I realised that it was basically a motor yacht with sticks, and I should just embrace the opportunities!  My first Chief Stewardess position on M/Y Contico, a 45m charter boat was in 1996, and for the next 8 years I was lucky enough to work on several Feadships based out of Palma.  At one point, the owner of one yacht where I was Chief Stew, bought a villa in Deia in the mountains of Mallorca and I for over 8 years I was the Housekeeper (read – Chief cook, bottle washer, cleaner and pool cleaner, shopping companion and reform manager!).  A wonderful time of hard work alone, but with that comes the freedom to create your own hours, and be entirely responsible for the quality of the service.  I only realised afterwards what a golden time that was. My drive to work, considered long on the island, was a daily treat.

WHAT WERE YOUR HIGHLIGHTS?

The highlights of yachting are of course many – experiencing so much of the Med, Caribbean and parts of the Pacific ( the Marquesas are soo incredibly green), even got to Norway; Seeing so many parts of the world I would never have got to under my own steam.  Time off in wonderful places like Tuscany, experiencing the big shows like Monaco and Lauderdale.  Stingrays in the Cayman Islands, a mad day in Florida which was swimming with dolphins in the Keys followed by a skydive in the afternoon!

Talk about time off overload!  Serving celebrity guests of course is always a huge thrill.  There were some fabulous nights out in amazing places.  Incredible life-long friends of all nationalities.  Helming Adix under full sail at night under the watchful eye of Paul Goss.  Volunteering for 7 summers at a dog shelter in Dubrovnik where the boat was based was hugely rewarding, and a great way to switch off.

WHAT WERE YOUR LOW POINTS?   

The early seasons often were 3 months of back-to-back charter without a day off – exhausting.  Manning hours didn’t exist then and you regularly worked days in the high teens of hours, even a 23 hour day once!  It taught me stamina that has stood me in good stead since!  Being fired from Shenandoah for staying in the bar too long on a crew birthday when I was the watch stewardess and the boss came back early from dinner ashore!  The misogny of some captains or crew could flatten your desire to excel sometimes.  Excessive tiredness.  There were a few years when every boat I seemed to get on, was sold.  The uncertainty of where that next job was going to come from was not nice, but like the junkies we are, it is an addictive industry to give up!

HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS TIME FOR YOU TO MAKE THE MOVE TO LAND? 

I had often planned to leave yachting at 30, 35, etc, and was out of yachting, per se, for those years at the villa, although I often doubled up as watchman, or shore support/ extra stewardess for the owner’s 2 yachts.  When the couple divorced, having worked for them for over 11 years, I tried my hand as estate agent in Deia. I soon realised that I don’t have the personality for that type of hustle, and was not keen on the office atmosphere there.  They didn’t work as a team!  Soon however, I was lucky enough to be offered a Chief Stew position on a 45m based in Palma and it lasted for 7.5 years.  That eventually sold late in 2020, and the clean sweep started.  For sure, I was let go by the new owner as too old, and not a skinny, young thing.  We may not like it, but appearance always has and will continue to be a massive part of the industry, however un-PC that may be in the world outside yachting. Of course it is the owner’s right to have crew around him that fit his look, so the decision was made for me!  8 months into Covid, and the start of winter – not the best timing…  It was a frying pan in the face, but actually, it was the release that I needed and I was lucky in that my previous owner had given us all good bonuses on selling the yacht.  It was a shock to realise that my time in yachting was over ( we are all rather Peter Pan, are we not?) and I still find it hard to believe that I was there for 30 years, even though I had never been what I consider a natural stewardess!  I think I never shook that imposter feeling!

Caroline Stapley

WHAT WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING ABOUT THE TRANSITION? 

The rejection of that owner for the reasons of age and looks was hard at first, especially as he did not know me or my work ethic, but you soon realise that you don’t want to work for that sort of person anyway.  I had an idea about what I could do next – an extension of what I had done in my free time (animal rescue) and started researching pet transportation.  There is that feeling when you leave yachting, similar to when you leave University, that suddenly you are back out in the big, bad world again, and it’s quite intimidating to get started, and to realise that that part of your life is now over.  There was a kind of grief, akin to the end of a long relationship.  Now, as I leave or arrive to Barcelona port and see the yachts under their scaffolding, it suddenly seems like a lifetime away, and that I am no longer part of that great club.  One doesn’t realise the camaraderie that exists in yachting, that is surely unlike no other industry.  Don’t get me started on Spanish bureaucracy, and getting everything you need organised for licences, etc!  I would say it is hard also, having been an employee for decades, to suddenly adapt to income generation every month, cash flow, bills, taxes.  That monthly wage is not there every month and that is quite unsettling!

WHAT WAS THE BEST THING ABOUT IT? 

Haha, ask me in a few months!  It’s only been a few months since I started what I do now. I hit the ground running as the previous pet transporter on the island literally gave me a week’s notice as his back had given out!  In at the deep end, and survival mode for several months!  I feel like I have been on charter for 7 months now.!  It is exhilarating, freeing, daunting.   The best part are the animals of course.  As in yachting, some owners can be a bit special!  I love the fact that I am getting to see so much beautiful countryside in the UK, Ireland and France.  I feel like I am re-discovering the UK after so many years being based abroad.  My routes have taken me past friends and relatives I have not seen in ages, and probably would not have been able to visit, albeit from a distance, had I been a normal person with no travel exemption.

WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT WORKING AT SEA? 

The crew feeling, dolphins, whales, turtles at sea. Atlantic crossings under sail.  The night sky at sea.  That feeling after a big party – that you made it, or after guests leave happy that you have made a difference. When I gave up yachting for a few months in the mid-90’s, I moved back to the UK to work.  But the house never moved so the view was always the same!  Views of a new place through a porthole brings a romantic excitement, even when it threatens to turn into portholephobia, when you realise you won’t actually get ashore there!  I realise also how spoilt I was, that living on board, there was always an amazing chef or cook providing a conveyor belt of meals!

WHAT DO YOU DO NOW? 

Caroline Stapley

Back in June, I took over from someone who already ran pet transport from the island by ferry and road to the UK.  I bought his van as he was retiring and re-named the venture Magic Car-Pet Transfer, with the idea of pets swishing effortlessly from one location to another to be reunited with their owners.  To date, I have moved 99 dogs and cats back and forth from Mallorca to the UK and Ireland – even a 65kg Mastin!  It can be exhausting, if I don’t pay attention to the logistics planning.  It’s a balance of trying to offer the service that caters for all clients needs, working out the most efficient routes, ferries, hotels, van maintenance, etc, whilst giving myself enough time for turnarounds, cage disinfection, quotes, route-planning as well as dealing with vets on passports and documentation issues.

Caroline Stapley

It’s been a sharp learning curve!  Also, mentalising for charging people for a service (I’ve always been terrible at asking people for money!) and keeping an eye on very changeable costs, has been quite a challenge.  The driving is actually not that bad as French motorways for the most part are quite empty in comparison to UK ones.  Getting and staying informed about all the legal requirements needed for me and pets to travel to and from the EU post-Brexit has been quite something, with of course that extra layer of Covid adding to the paperwork needed before each trip for me, the pets, my van and owners who sometimes join their pets on the journey.  Being able to offer advice to pet owners wishing to tackle the trip themselves is very satisfying.  I enjoy getting it right, sailing through Customs with a vanload of pets and back out onto the open road again.  When the planning all comes together, it is very satisfying.  My favourite part is the reunion when you get a full body wags and jubilation from dogs on seeing their owners again.  Many come racing back up to me, as if to say thanks!

Caroline Stapley

Caroline Stapley

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO FELLOW YACHTIES LOOKING TO LEAVE YACHTING? 

Stay in yachting as long as you can, if it suits your life plan, but start planning what you will do when someone moves your cheese.  For female crew, I don’t think enough respect is given to those who wish to leave and have a family.  It’s our biological function and it bothers me that it is so dissed in this industry. There!  I said it!  It is seen as somehow wimping out, or being boring.

Ladies!  Your hormones drop off a cliff at 35!  If it was always your dream to have kids, don’t let yachting keep seducing you!  Make that plan and go find it!  Peter Pan is alive and well, and you owe it to yourself to not forget your hopes!  (That should start a few comments in the crew mess!)  As far as starting a new business, or new profession, remember the skills you learnt in yachting of hard work, discipline, striving for excellence, service, working within a framework but having the flexibility to change plans at a moment’s notice – those are all attributes that will stand you in good stead for life on your own, away from the safety net of a crew atmosphere.  One of my first captains told me a great phrase for varnish work that actually applies too much in life – 90% preparation, 10% application.  He was an arse, an amazing natural sailor, but he wasn’t wrong on that one!

Thank you for reading!

Magic Car Pet Transfer

+34 639 851 008

magic.car.pet.transfer@gmail.com

 

Interview by Melanie Winters

+34 646 89 73 78

melwmarketing@gmail.com 

 

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